For Mayor, Keeping Schools Open Brings Another Headache

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After a decision on Wednesday night to keep New York City schools open, families battled their way through the snow in the East Village on Thursday morning.CreditCreditJoshua Bright for The New York Times

His education chief declared Thursday “a beautiful day” as sleet poured down on parents wondering why schools had not been closed.

His voice grew quiet, and his remarks more brittle, as questions mounted about why he dialed the police about an arrested friend.

And by lunchtime, he was embroiled in an intercontinental tiff with Al Roker, the jovial television weatherman.

The honeymoon will always run out on a newly elected New York City mayor.

But after just six weeks in office, Bill de Blasio has discovered that wintry weather and a hint of impropriety can hinder the careful plans of a young administration quicker than most.

Faced with a question that has bedeviled city leaders for decades — snow day or no snow day?— Mr. de Blasio and his schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, decided on Wednesday night to keep city schools open, declaring their plans earlier than the typical early-morning notice.

But as big flakes accumulated in a messy morning rush on Thursday, the decision drew rebukes from parents and principals alike, who swapped tales of stranded buses and mostly empty classrooms on a day when fewer than half of students made it to school.

Allies of Mr. de Blasio, including the City Council speaker and the head of the city teachers’ union, all said the mayor had been misguided. The National Weather Service, whose forecast he suggested was inaccurate, insisted the projections it gave to city officials had proved correct.

With six snowstorms in six weeks, Mr. de Blasio has been drawing short straws in an unforgiving city, and he pointed out on Thursday that city schools have been closed for snow only 11 times in nearly 40 years.

Still, the outcry arrived at a sensitive moment for the mayor, who is facing challenges on many fronts.

He appeared unusually exasperated this week after key Albany lawmakers said they were disinclined to support two of his marquee proposals, an increase in the city’s minimum wage and a tax on wealthy residents to pay for prekindergarten classes.

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New York parents dragged their children to school through snow and ice Thursday, on a day when the governor declared a state of emergency. Some were creative about transport; not all were happy.Published OnFeb. 13, 2014

And he faced new complaints on Thursday from good-government groups questioning his decision, just hours after his State of the City address on Monday, to call a high-ranking police official and inquire about a political supporter who had been arrested in Brooklyn.

Tensions came to a head on Thursday at a news conference in Brooklyn, where the typically feisty and affable mayor appeared cowed, his voice by turns shaky and defiant as he found himself on the defensive.

“It would be nice if we got a video the night before of exactly what the next day looks like,” Mr. de Blasio said at one point. The mayor said the storm had “sped up” from initial forecasts and that officials have to “make decisions based on the information you have.”

That contention did not sit well with Mr. Roker, of the “Today” show, who had been complaining on Twitter to nearly 270,000 followers about his daughter’s snowy commute to school, and appeared to be following Mr. de Blasio’s news conference from Sochi, where he is covering the Winter Olympics.

“Forecast was on time and on the money,” Mr. Roker wrote, suggesting the mayor had thrown the Weather Service “under the school bus.”

Told that Mr. Roker was bluntly predicting a one-term mayoralty, Mr. de Blasio ventured some humor.

“I respect Al Roker a lot,” the mayor said. “It’s a different thing to run a city than to give the weather on TV.”

On Twitter, Mr. Roker struck back: “Mr. Mayor, I could never run NYC, but I know when it’s time to keep kids home from school.” Later, he posted a copy of the Weather Service forecast from Wednesday afternoon predicting a difficult Thursday.

I. Ross Dickman, the Weather Service’s meteorologist in charge for the New York region, said in an interview: “I think we had an outstanding forecast. The state of the science really doesn’t get much better.”

In a rare break, many New York private and parochial schools chose to cancel classes; typically, those schools follow the city’s lead.

But the mayor and Ms. Fariña said city officials had juggled several considerations as they made the call, never an easy one, to keep public schools open.

Mr. de Blasio said he was mindful of parents who could not take off work on short notice and who depend on schools for child care, and he said officials believed that warmer temperatures and snowfall estimates would make for a safe commute.

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Carmen Fariña, the schools chancellor, and Mayor Bill de Blasio took questions about the storm.CreditRobert Stolarik for The New York Times

Ms. Fariña said she had heard complaints from parents about last-minute decisions to close schools, so the city sought to provide more notice by deciding the night before. She said officials were also reluctant to call off school so close to a vacation week.

Blizzards have produced some of New York’s most memorable gaffes — former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg once urged snowbound residents to see a Broadway show — and Ms. Fariña veered close to that territory, telling New Yorkers, still struggling with slush-covered sidewalks, that “it is absolutely a beautiful day out there right now.”

Mr. de Blasio, asked about that comment, said he did not see a problem. “She didn’t say it was sunny Florida,” the mayor said.

For all the headaches, this week has also brought some successes for the mayor.

In his State of the City address, Mr. de Blasio announced a plan for municipal identification cards that was greeted warmly by immigrant residents and their advocates, who thanked the mayor for bringing New York in line with other major cities, like Los Angeles and San Francisco, that use similar systems.

And Mr. de Blasio passed a key early test of any mayor during his first city budget presentation on Wednesday. His plan, which included relief for the city’s Housing Authority for policing costs, earned praise from civic groups.

On Thursday, some parents defended the decision to keep schools open, even as teachers grumbled about deserted classrooms and students described early morning falls on icy sidewalks.

“If I was a working mom, I would appreciate that,” said Araceli Jaramillo, who was picking up her daughter at Murrow High School in Midwood, Brooklyn. “I wouldn’t have to look for a babysitter or anything.”

Jack Grosbard, whose daughter attends Murrow, said Mr. de Blasio had “shown he wants to keep schools open unless it’s dire straits.” His daughter’s biggest class on Thursday had four students in it.

On Staten Island, Susan Tronolone, the principal of Intermediate School 61, described how teachers had to trudge to the bottom of a steep hill to retrieve students stranded in a bus stuck in the snow.

Soon, a second bus, this one from a nearby elementary school, had become stuck. Teachers brought the students inside for breakfast until their parents could pick them up.

Less than half the students at I.S. 61 went to school, and only about two-thirds of the teachers showed up, Ms. Tronolone said.

“Somebody came in and asked if we could close early,” she said, laughing. “It’s impossible.”

AL ROKER’S ICY WORDS FOR THE MAYOR: I knew this am
@NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools
would close
schools. Talk about a bad prediction. Long range DiBlasio
Forecast: 1 term
And how about all the parents and caregivers who have had to
scramble to get their kids home? Is there no one there with any
common sense?
So now my daughter’s NYC public school is being let out early.
@NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools
Is it worth putting kids’
safety at risk?
Why are all the schools all around NYC closed? It’s going to take
some kid or some kids getting hurt before this goofball policy
gets changed
Al Roker
@alroker

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Schools Stay Open; Mayor Gets New Headache. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe